


otiose | overmorrow

by eastern_wind



Series: seriatim [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hyuuga Clan Needs to Quit Their Bullshit, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 08:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19001692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eastern_wind/pseuds/eastern_wind
Summary: otiose | [oh-shee-ohs, oh-tee-ohs]adjective1. being at leisure; idle; indolent.2. ineffective or futile.3. superfluous or useless.





	1. otiose

The whole household is sound asleep.

Neji is shaking. Anger and disgust boil in him, threatening to spill over the rim of his patience as he unties his hitaiate, almost tears off his clothes and staggers into the bathroom. He is sick, achingly dirty and hardly feels anything when sharp shards of broken mirror cut the soles of his feet. It takes an effort to remember the time when there was an enemy worse than his own reflection that slowly turned into the face of his father.

Cold water is a shock to his nerves. It burns still bleeding nail marks on his back and hips worse than any katon jutsu, does nothing to ease a throbbing pain in his bruised and scraped elbows and knees. Neji hates it, despises it, loathes it but… he is Branch and there is no such word as "no" in his book.

Not when the Clan Head is chasing his ghosts.


	2. overmorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> overmorrow | [oh-ver-mawr-oh, oh-ver‐mor-oh]  
>  _noun_  
>  1\. the day after tomorrow  
>  _adverb_  
>  2\. on the day after tomorrow

The whole household is sound asleep.

Gentle hands pry paper dividers open with a practiced ease and Hinata slips away from the suffocating silence of the room. The night is still young, hour of Rat having no intention to give in to Ox, but she has spent years studying flashes of movement disturbing the garden of Clan Head house, picking apart small noises and out of place shadows. By now she knows every sentry, memorized every chakra signature and, even though slipping past them is still an art… Hinata disappears into the darkness. The Clan believes her to be weak, useless pacifistic child and it is her greatest cover.

For now.

She rushes along old stone walls of the compound, navigating the maze like a seasoned sailor the sea. Broad wooden houses give way to apartment buildings crawling on top of each other as she enters Branch territory and all of sudden Hinata comes to a halt when her Byakugan detects a familiar spark of erratic heartbeat two blocks ahead. It does not move, only flutters like a bird in a cage too small for its growing wings. She darts forward, afraid to be late.

 

Hinata slips into the tiny apartment on the edge of compound with her hands already glowing faint green. Five confident steps take her into a barely one by one bathroom that could hardly fit the two of them when it all has started a year ago. Small room with falling off tiles feels absolutely cramped now. She pays it no mind.

The water has already ran out but Neji never moves to dry or at least cover himself. Hinata does not even blush as she carefully wraps her cousin in a towel and ushers him into the bedroom - she has seen him in the state of undress far too many times to spare precious seconds on shy stammering. There is no place for modesty, not when even her feather-light touch makes Neji flinch.

Her chakra spikes and he stills, stares at the old paint on the opposite wall as she heals the worst of the damage, his ragged breathing being the only sound in the silence. Hinata does not ask, does not say anything, simply finishes her patch-job and stands on her tiptoes to kiss him on the forehead where thick lines of glowing azure ink mar his features. It is her promise that is stronger than any bond, the vow she does not dare say out loud.

Two days, just two days are left until she is fourteen and officially of age to contest Hiashi’s standing as a Clan Head. The man that sired her believes Hinata to be weak, useless pacifistic _child_. He is not expecting a rebellion - neither her to challenge him to a fight, nor the poison Sakura-san has managed to procure for Hinata from her contacts in Oto.

Brotherly love… This twisted notion haunts the walls of Hyūga compound as the ghost of Neji’s father. Main see nothing wrong in it because they were the ones to nurture the codependence that is now slowly killing Neji, and Branch has been a victim of such upbringing since the creation of the Caged Bird. Slavery…

“Hyūga do not air their dirty laundry in public.”

“Elders know what is best, child.”

“Do not question the wise.”

Lies, lies, lies spread like cancer and Hinata wonders if she has enough steel in her to revolutionize the oldest Clan of Konoha, but her fingers do not falter as she tenderly untangles the knots in Neji’s long hair. It is not for her, she remembers and swears once again: Hiashi will go down soon, even if she dies too in the process. Hanabi knows of their fathers’ disgrace, she will not let the history repeat itself.

 

A cricket erupts in a chortling screech somewhere up the street and it is a signal for Hinata to hurry back before new watch comes in. Two steps and she is already perched on the windowsill, ready to disappear into the night, when Neji calls out to her for the first time in what feels like ages.

“Hinata-sama-”

Her features are gentle as ever, demure even, but he pauses when their eyes meet. Weak - they call her - spineless, indolent. Neji believed them once, longed for her suffering until she took a blow in her heart from him, for him. The truth is much more complicated than her facade.

He knows she is planning something, sees in in the set of her shoulders. She is a splitting image of her late mother, not an ounce of Hiashi tainting her appearance and Neji is thankful for it.

“Overmorrow,” she murmurs before diving into the darkness and he

believes.


End file.
